yes, the notion that speech lies in a separate sanctified protected box distinct from a box of actual action is a very deliberate carefully nurtured societal notion.
Not all societies have developed such a notion (and some are comparatively hypocritical in their interpretation of it).
An abstraction layer is required to draw this boundary around protected speech. The abstraction layer is learned, that what instinctively appears to be a threat may not necessarily be considered materially so.
Powder-keg stuff when societies that have constructed a speech safe-zone interact with those who have not deliberately done so.
The difference in US society between verbally insulting a person's mother and punching a person in the face is considerable. I do not believe that is uniformly the case around the world.
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